President Ali updated on modernisation of health sector
His Excellency President Dr Irfaan Ali received an in-depth report on the significant progress being made in the implementation of national strategies to strengthen and expand access to quality healthcare in Guyana.
During a meeting at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre, today, the Head of State was briefed by the Ministry of Health (MoH), Mount Sinai and Hess Corporation on the major successes in the modernisation of the health sector.
In conjunction with the Government and Hess, Mount Sinai is advising and aiding the development of high-quality primary care with specialised services in cardiology and oncology. The New York-based health system, has also made significant improvements at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).
The Mount Sinai team, working in partnership with GPHC, has focused on improving care outcomes for infants treated in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) with advanced training for NICU nurses and established quality and safety programmes. This, their representatives explained, would improve the ability of GPHC to reduce infections and prevent major adverse events.
President Ali was also informed that the health system is working with the leadership at GPHC to improve hospital operations by training GPHC staff to use LEAN and continuous process improvement methods to deliver better, more efficient service. These initiatives are in addition to the support the Mount Sinai group has given towards the development and opening of a new state-of-the-art pathology laboratory at GPHC.
Early detection
It was revealed that to date there has been a rapid rollout of school-based health screenings.
Through this programme, collaboration between MoH and Mount Sinai allowed for more than 60% of Nursery I and nearly 25% of Nursery II children being screened nationally. An additional 87,000 primary school students will be screened by the end of 2024.
The screening aims to aid in the early detection of health-related illness and to identify necessary care and prevention treatment plans. Some 23 per cent of children screened, were referred for medical attention.
Under the National Primary Care System Strengthening Initiative, over 400 clinicians have been trained to implement the new national diabetes screening and treatment guidelines.
Later this month, the MoH with Mount Sinai’s support will launch a new nurse assistant curriculum and training programme. This launch adds to a new programme started earlier this year to train Spanish-speaking nurses to provide care in English.
Mount Sinai’s representative Rachel Vreeman, MD, MS, told President Ali that “the efforts by the Government of Guyana, Ministry of Health, and their teams have been critical to these successes. Together, we are on the verge of being able to transform healthcare for everyone in Guyana and deliver on the promise of better health for all.”
Minister of Health, the Honourable Dr Frank Anthony, Hess Corporation CEO John Hess and other key stakeholders in the collaboration were also a part of the meeting.